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We have all experienced reading a few lines or in fact pages in a state of automatic pilot and not being able to recall any of it. This is our body’s clever way of saving fuel. Our conscious brain is a gas guzzling high powered machine when we concentrate, for example like learning a new language. To be more efficient our subconscious brain takes over, it looks at what we are experiencing now and sees if it looks familiar with a previous experience. If it does, it assumes that the experience is the same as yesterday and behaves in the same way. It creates a blue print of your daily life and feeds you this reality again and again. No wonder we feel bored, no wonder small kids say, “I know that Aunty”.

It is estimated that we spend 80% of our life on autopilot or subconscious pilot! This means that majority of life is habituated doing what we regularly do and not seeing the unique context of that moment as a separate time (fourth dimension) in three dimensional space.

Our life is lived in a dull blur. We resist the now and the new.

We need to override this autopilot. Each time you notice you are on autopilot, or the next time you take a drink of water, tea, etc. Take a slow deep breath in through your nose, hold the breath, exhale through the nose, smile and ask yourself, “what is needed now?” Because it is different to what was needed yesterday. Just by doing this you will have taken yourself off autopilot and switched on your high powered intuitive, brain. Enjoy, life is here to be experienced not thought about!

Last week looked at the Nervous system, how we withstand the stresses and strains of life. The depth or strength of your nervous system determined whether you could experience the moment, process it and let it go.

We look at anatomy in Kundalini yoga because we want to understand why our brain produces certain thoughts and what feelings come from what glands and organs. We even investigate what foods, habits, yoga asanas and breathing techniques are recommended to regulate our hormones or endocrine system.

The endocrine glands manufacture certain chemical compounds called hormones which regulate all the functions of the body. The body and personality are dependent on the proper functioning of the endocrine glands for the maintenance of good health. For example, an over secretion of thyroxin, (produced by the thyroid gland) makes us irritable, tense, overexcited, speedy. Thoughts race around and the body metabolism speeds up. This is the opposite when the there is a under production of thyroxin.

Yogi Bhajan used the half cobra for a lot of the sets because half cobra is very important in relating to the emotional body. It opens up the pelvis and the pelvis is the bowl that holds the glands and organs that produce the hormones and peptides that create a lot of our emotional sensation. To attain optimum health, every gland must work efficiently and in harmony with the other glands. Together they form an axis controlled by the master pituitary gland and brain.

Emotional Intelligence is understanding that all emotions are energy which can be used for our benefit. We have been told to be afraid of our anger so be bottle it up. The wise use of Angry energy is determination. The energy conversion in Confusion it decisiveness. Confusion is just decisiveness with no place to go.

Our bodies are the most masterful, chemical, laboratories know to the Universe. Make a note this week, what makes you angry, anxious, upset, fearful etc. What are the triggers for these emotions? Be mindful when they are triggered to take action, but not be reactive. Is it food, people or certain scenarios? Start creating a map for yourself of your emotional body to really start mastering the self. Then use your body, breath and mind to start mastering your glands and organs, bringing them to balance so we can feel our emotions, know what to do with each one, experience the present moment without the mental commentary and process the what it.

On Saturday listening to amazing live music I was reminded how powerful sound is and how it can change us, recharge our battery and sing to our soul. In the words of Bog Marley, “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery none but ourselves can free our minds….” I believe that using our voice, powerful language like mantra and sound we can gain the ultimate freedom, the freedom of the mind.

The act of singing heals us; it changes our blood chemistry increasing the amounts of endorphins like serotonin the feel good hormone and oxytocin the hormone that makes us feel trust and connection. That is one of the draws for me about Kundalini Yoga, how the music makes me feel when I chant along with it, use it to set a pace or rhythm for a movement or breath pattern, or just listen to it during relaxation periods.

Kundalini yoga has its own music genre, sometimes called Western Gurbani. Gurbani means “sacred language based on the power of the sound current”, it is the words of the Seekers, the Sikh enlightened masters who gave us theses gems of wisdom. When Yogi Bhajan took these teachings to California in 1969, a fusion of Western-style music and Gurbani emerged, and this is what you’ll hear in kundalini yoga classes today. The sacred words (mantras) in kundalini yoga music are usually in their original language, Gurmukhi, which is one of a handful of languages – amongst them Sanskrit and French – in which the sounds of the syllables impart meaning from the way they resonate. In other words, the words have specific effects as they vibrate internally in your body.

As we pronounce the mantra words, meridian points in the upper palate are stimulated by the tongue in a sequence and rhythm, initiating a chain of chemical reactions in the glands and organs connected to those meridians. Meanwhile the mantra sound vibrations resonate deeply within the body, helping to unblock stored emotion, dissolve negative thought patterns and promote the circulation of energy through the body’s energetic pathways.

Practical

This week try to sing a devotional Kundalini Yoga song or mantra at least once a day, while in shower, shopping, cooking, or even driving. You will get the that same happy, carefree feeling plus a good dose of elevation that can give you the freedom from the pressures of the mind and times.

Be present, this has become a buzz word from Kung fu Panda to corporate lingo. But how can you be present? Is it intense concentration or a blank mind? Eckhart Tolle gives the best description about presence.

“When you are present, when your attention is fully and intensely in the Now, Being can be felt, but it can never be understood mentally. ”Eckhart Tolle

For me being present is not a continuous state that you get to, in order to get back to presence, I bring my attention back to my heart and breath. In that moment I can feel the energy of life pulsating through my body and I am aware of existence through my feelings, including discomfort. We have a tendency to allow our mind to drift and then we fall out of presence and into a blue print of how life is. Our brain has evolved over time to recognize patterns and to try and predict what’s going to happen next from those patterns. Our neural pathways search for predictability and security. Our default position could be either negative, positive or neutral. But when we move away from doing a task in a robotic or automatic manner and apply our full awareness our presence to it, it allows us to respond from a place of being fully in the moment, fully present to the solution, where there is only a problem. At other times we are driven to rediscover and get back to presence—usually as a result of an unpleasant circumstance. This sometimes happens when success gives way to depression or boredom; when we experience an inexplicable, gradual drift from the sense of meaning in what we do; when a major transition upsets our life—by change of job, residence, marriage, death, war, or disaster; or when we are pressed by our own natural cycles of maturation to re-evaluate what, how, and why we do things.

During these times try out these exercises:

Put aside your expectations and replace them with a neutral anticipation and childlike curiosity

Put aside your judgments of good and bad and dwell in gratitude with what is real and now.

Put aside beliefs and imprints from others and claim the beliefs that are authentic to your heart, soul, and experience

Put aside the constant whir of your life for the stillness and intuitive sensitivity of your consciousness

In this way, the pattern of your life and the direction of your purpose will stand in this present moment and through every moment of your life just as the pull of the current shapes the form of a river.

How to increase your presence?

Give yourself markers during the day, maybe before each meal, you can take 30 seconds to feel present and grateful. First thing in the morning and last thing at night. Make bringing presence into your life your priority every day, this may include doing a daily yoga and meditation practice, being present when exercising, walking or even typing on your computer.